Chapter 14 up

Chapter 14 up
"Felicia? What’s wrong?" Andre sprang up instantly, his previously calm expression overtaken by a flash of sharp anxiety.
Felicia couldn't answer. A wave of searing pain, like a thousand white-hot needles stabbing at once, pierced her lower abdomen. She let out a stifled groan, her body arching forward as her hands gripped the edge of the wooden chair until her knuckles turned white.
"It hurts... Andre... my stomach..." Felicia’s voice caught in her throat.
Her face, which had begun to glow under the morning sun, turned deathly pale in seconds. Beads of cold sweat flooded her forehead. The pain wasn't a mere cramp; it was a tearing sensation that made it difficult for her to even draw breath.
Elena leaped from her seat, her combat instincts snapping back to attention. She checked her sister’s pulse and looked down. "Andre, look!"
On the light brown wood of the pier, a drop of deep red blood fell from beneath the casual dress Felicia was wearing. Then, the droplets turned into a terrifying, steady stream.
"No... not now," Andre whispered, his voice trembling violently. He immediately scooped Felicia into his arms, feeling her body shaking from the onset of shock. "Elena! Get the car ready! We have to get to the University Hospital in Geneva now!"
Ratna, who had just approached, let out a small cry, covering her mouth in horror. "Oh God, Felicia! Is this because... because of that thermal waste pipe?"
Andre’s mind flashed back to the events hours ago at The Citadel. Felicia had crawled through an exhaust pipe with extreme temperatures for fifteen minutes. The heat radiation, the unstable air pressure at 3,000 meters, and the immense physical stress of the battle—it was a lethal recipe for anyone's physical condition.
During the frantic drive through the winding Swiss streets, Felicia drifted in and out of consciousness. Her head rested in Andre’s lap while her hand squeezed his shirt with what little strength she had left.
"Andre... promise me..." Felicia whispered, her lips tinged with blue.
"Don't speak, darling. You're going to be okay. You made it through the hell of the Alps; you won't lose here," Andre kissed her hand, the tears he had been holding back finally falling.
"If... if something happens... save them..." Felicia closed her eyes, and at that moment, she lost consciousness entirely.
Inside the ER of the Geneva University Hospital, the atmosphere was chaotic. A medical team in blue scrubs immediately took over Felicia’s gurney. Andre tried to follow them in, but a nurse held him back at the closing automatic doors.
"You must wait outside, Mr. Mahendra! We have to perform emergency surgery!"
Andre stood frozen in front of the glass doors, staring at the stains of his wife's blood left on his palms. Elena stood beside him, her breathing heavy.
"I checked the medical history Mother brought from the orphanage," Elena said in a low voice thick with rage. "Wilson... that bastard. During those three years of torture, he forcibly gave Felicia high-dose hormonal contraceptive injections so she could never get pregnant. It ravaged her uterine lining. Combined with the physical trauma in the Alps... her body couldn't bear this weight."
Andre slammed his fist against the hospital wall. "I shouldn't have let her go into that pipe! It should have been me!"
"This isn't your fault, Andre," Elena cut in, though her own eyes were glassy. "These are the remnants of a poison from the past trying to snatch away her future."
Three hours passed like an eternity. The surgeon emerged looking exhausted. He pulled down his mask and looked at Andre with deep sympathy.
"Mr. Mahendra, your wife is stable. We successfully stopped the internal bleeding caused by the rupture of a hidden endometriotic cyst, triggered by extreme heat exposure and physical exhaustion," the doctor paused, making Andre’s heart skip a beat.
"And... the baby?" Andre asked, his voice nearly vanishing.
The doctor shook his head slowly. "We didn't even know she was six weeks pregnant until the hemorrhaging occurred. Her uterine condition was too fragile due to chemical exposure in the past. We were forced to prioritize saving the mother's life."
Andre’s world felt as though it were collapsing. He slumped into a waiting room chair, burying his face in his hands. This loss felt more painful than any bullet that had ever pierced his shoulder. They had just won a war against the global elite, yet they had lost the small victory they craved most: a family.
However, amidst the grief, Elena approached Andre with her tablet. Her face showed no sorrow, but rather a renewed fury.
"Andre, look at this. I hacked into the hospital’s lab system to run a deep analysis on Felicia’s blood samples," Elena showed him a complex chemical graph. "This bleeding wasn't just caused by heat or Wilson’s past. There are traces of a synthetic toxin that entered her system within the last twenty-four hours."
Andre looked up, his eyes bloodshot with rage. "What do you mean?"
"Someone poisoned her coffee this morning at the pier," Elena hissed. "Someone still in our inner circle. Someone working for the last name on the card Felicia took from The Citadel."
Andre looked toward the recovery room where Felicia lay weak. His wife’s pain wasn't a medical accident—it was a calculated strike.
Dawn in Geneva no longer brought peace. It brought a thirst for a darker retribution. Felicia may have lost something precious today, but when she finally woke up, she would no longer be a woman seeking justice. She would be a woman demanding a blood debt.
"What is the name on that card, Elena?" Andre asked, his voice as cold as Alpine ice.
Elena flipped the tablet screen. There, a single name made Andre freeze:
Viktor Volkov – Leader of the Obsidian
Circle, Eastern Europe Division.